"Centerfilling" produces products which have a dual character. They have an "outer" portion which is encountered first as the consumer bites down on the product. The consumer then encounters an "inner" portion which may be of a similar character to the outside portion, or may be totally different. Centerfilled products normally include, for example, jellies, gums, fruits, nuts, grain pieces, and the like.
We have found no teaching in the literature regarding the centerfilling of larger, solid, cavity containing pieces such as cereal-based solid pieces with other smaller solid pieces such as, fruits, nuts, and the like, in a high-speed industrial process. We have found no high-speed process for the filling of cavities, generally speaking, in such cereal-based solid pieces with such other smaller solid pieces.
Typically, cereal pieces have been centerfilled with liquid are extruded during cooking extrusion of the cereal in co-extrusion processes, in both human foods and pet foods manufacture. (See Benson U.S. Pat. No. 3,482,992).
Also, the literature is replete with the teachings of the use of enrobers such as industrial revolving drum enrobers, to produce "centerfilled" products such as candies, and the like. In such processes, solid "centers" are sprayed with a liquid coating capable of bein9 dried into a solid outer shell. thus enlarging the diameter of the pieces comprising the initial bed. The respective pieces initially charged to the enrober becomes the "centerfill" and the sprayed liquid becomes the hard, solid, outer coating of the resulting product piece.
We have discovered a process by which solid pieces such as solid cereal-based pieces can be "centerfilled" with smaller discrete supplemental solid pieces almost instantly in a revolving vessel such as an enrober. We have also discovered a unique class of cereal-based products in which solid cereal base pieces have a configuration with recessed portions, and in which the recessed portions are filled with smaller pieces of other solid ingredients. The process in accordance with the present invention achieves virtually instantaneous concentration, positioning, and bonding of the smaller solid ingredient pieces in the cavity or recess portions of the larger base materials. In addition, in preferred embodiments, the resulting open porosity of the mass of small pieces provides a network of interstitial voids into which supplemental flavorant coatings tend to be concentrated due to capillary action. These assembled composite pieces are then dried prior to packaging. Such products have a crisp outer cereal portion which is first encountered by the consumer, as he or she bites down, and a chewy flavorsome inner portion which is subsequently experienced.